The Volkswagen emissions scandal has finally started to hit UK car sales

A Brazilian man transporting the remains of a Volkswagen Beetle that caught fire and was abandoned by its owner the day before in Rio de Janeiro.
REUTERS/Bruno Domingos
Car sales in the UK are on their way down, and the Volkswagen emissions scandal is to blame.

Data released on Thursday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, or SMMT, shows that sales of cars in the UK in October dropped by 1.1%, the first monthly fall in 43 months. In total, 177,664 new cars were registered.

New car registrations in the UK have been enjoying an enormous boom in recent years, and before October sales had grown every month for more than 3 1/2 years.

Volkswagen's emissions scandal broke in late September and didn't have time to affect sales for that month, but the full impact on sales now seems to be hitting.

Volkswagen's sales in Britain fell by nearly 10% last month, while sales of Seat, one of VW's brands, dropped off by a massive 32%. Skoda, another VW-owned automaker, saw a fall of 3%. The only Volkswagen-owned brand to grow sales was Audi, up by 2%.

Speaking with BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday morning, Mike Hawes, CEO of the SMMT, said the Volkswagen scandal had affected the industry as a whole and not just VW and the brands it owned. According to Autoexpress, he added that many consumers had started to think twice about buying any new vehicle in the wake of the emissions scandal.

Other manufacturers that saw a falloff in sales include Vauxhall and Ford, which saw drops of 8% and 16% respectively. The Japanese maker Nissan, which has a huge manufacturing plant in the UK, lost 13% of its sales.

Sales in the UK auto market have finally dipped, after 43 months of consecutive growth.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders

Though overall sales have fallen, Hawes was keen to stress that the market for autos in Britain was still buoyant. In an official statement he said, "The sector is in a strong position, as low interest rates, consumer confidence, and exciting new products combine to attract new car buyers."

So far in 2015, 2,274,550 new cars have been sold in the UK, the best year-to-date performance for the industry, and a 6.4% increase from the same time last year.

The Ford Fiesta remains the UK's most popular car, selling 8,577 units in October. Three Volkswagen-made cars remain in the top 10: the VW Golf, Polo, and Audi A3.

VW's drop in sales in the UK is not the first signal that consumers are put off by the emissions scandal. According to information first published in The Guardian, Volkswagen sales in South Korea in October slumped below 1,000 for the first time in more than four years. The numbers, produced by the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association, show that VW sold just 947 cars in South Korea last month, less than half the number in the same period in 2014.